Alloy polishing guide

Is it painted or anodized? if anodized, use oven cleaner as described in the thread, this should remove the black you can't get to, if painted use paint stripper to get at the bits you can't reach, but it is a little harder work to get paint off. (if you are unsure try oven cleaner on a small patch to see what happens, try this first as chances are it is anodized) once black bits are removed polish and don't worry about coating or chroming or corrosion. to keep a really nice shine you can just give it a really quick polish with Brasso ever couple of months (if you can be bothered)

Thanks Lachy, it was black from the factory but I don't know if it's anodized under that. I think not because I think anodizing makes it as hard as steel and it's not that hard.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7e4350bj5cf3lfv/2012-10-27%2021.59.58.jpg

I sanded it with 1200 dry then wet to get it as above.

Then I used wire wool to get at the black bits, then gave it 15 minutes in hot descaler solution, rinsed and used brass polish.

The black bits left over in the deepest pits I think I can't get out without gouging into it, so I'll try paint stripper as you say.

I was planning to get Autosol or aluminium polish but actually I don't know the specific alloy.

As I understand it, anodizing adds weight and dulls the finish which is exactly what I don't want. The point is to get it as shiny as possible as long as it can withstand normal outdoors use.

Now it's finer-grained than the used steel one it's replacing (and one gram lighter since I started working on it!), but the deepest black bits are still there.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/difn4qi6rq35j5l/2012-10-28%2000.13.53.jpg

Thanks again...

anodizing is just a layer of aluminium oxide that is a bit thicker than will occur if you just leave the part to oxidize naturally. it can be tinted to be blue, black, green etc or left clear. i think your part was probably anodized black and i would suggest oven cleaner/caustic soda as your first port of call. don't worry about special polishes, if the polish you have gives you a nice shine then just stick with it. the part may discolour slightly when you put oven cleaner on it, but don't worry, any discolouration will just polish right off.

Just did a bit of polishing for my mercian.....

Got these from colnago costa for a bargain...I had a veloce double, but wanted a triple.

They were a bit scratched....

So I polished em....

Now they look like this

Yum, yum.

Has anyone got experience of stripping and polishing hubs?

I'm thinking of picking up a cheap Shimano Deore hub. But it will either have black or matt silver finish, and it would be for a vintage bike.

My biggest concern with a Shimano hubs is that if they're cup and cone is there a risk of damaging the hub?

Yeh - I did it with an NOS shimano bmx hub. I think it was matt black. Bloody hard work! I stripped it down and popped the seals out etc. before working on it with wet and dry and then buffing wheel.

http://www.lfgss.com/album.php?albumid=1710&pictureid=9672

My first attempt: 360>800>1200>Peek. About two hours work.

That looks pretty good.

I've found the oven cleaner method to work, except I bought some Mr. Muscle stuff and instead of leaving them white and powderey, it left a pretty tough black crust on it. Which required some serious wetdry sandpapering.

If they've turned black, you've left it on too long.

The active ingredient of oven cleaners etc, is caustic soda so you might as well just buy that: it's cheaper and useful for keeping your drains clean. Which is where you'll find it, "in the drain cleaners aisle".

Ahh okay, i did forget about it at one point...good method though would definitely recommend it

I'm just about to have my first go at polishing some cranks to a nice shine, so a massive thank you to everybody for contributing to this thread! Very useful :)

use brasso it works miracles and you can get it in most pound shops

Not sure if this was posted here or not, but the following link has everything one needs, I think:

http://www.vintagebmx.com/community/index.php?showtopic=4005471

On the same topic, need an advice!

Here's my Cinelli stem, I bought it a while back and mounted it just recently. When it was laying on the shelf, I was not bothered by the scratch area on the top of it, but it constantly draws my eyes when riding. Guess is former stem owner must have been doing bike maintenance upside down..

So a question:

Is there a way to get rid of the scratches and polish it out without having to go over the whole stem and destroy the anode in the process?

you could polish out the roughness then re-anodise, videos/tutorials are out there

i'm a tad reluctant when it comes to attempting a DIY 'little-scientist' with H2SO4..

oh come on, what could break bad?

my face, for starters ;) Though, don't think that it could get much worse than it already is.

Yep i always used Brasso back in the 60s.

Yep i always used Brasso back in the 60s.
How much does it cost, and where can I get it from?

How do I set about cleaning it?

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Get a polish mop set from your local hardware store, and a power drill and some polishing soaps. Real cheap from Toolstation.

recently bought a bench polisher / grinder to try and give some metal polishing a go
my very first attempt with 5 mins work got this deore xt crank looking nice

left side polished right side not photos don't do it justice but think brand new chromed metal / mirror finish

anyone need anything doing

one thing i was slightly worried about ... the heat generated by the polishing, could this weaken the metal in any way, i'm not getting to 300C but any heating will cause excitement in the electrons, not sure if in a good way or a bad way

What you need to do is just brief the electrons first. A little pep talk, so that they don't get too excited. Yes, there's polishing and it's going to be fun, but nothing to bust out of your lattice over.

Generic advice about electrons but obviously I've put my own spin on it.